How to Reference Nested Documents in NestJS Mongoose TypeScript

Learn how to properly set up nested document references in NestJS using Mongoose and TypeScript, allowing for effective data management in your application.
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How to Reference Nested Documents in NestJS Mongoose TypeScript

If you're diving into NestJS with Mongoose and TypeScript, you might find yourself grappling with how to effectively reference nested documents within your schema. This can be particularly challenging when dealing with structures like a diet plan that incorporates days and meals, each of which may have their own distinct schemas.

In this post, we will walk you through the steps necessary to properly set up your class schema for nested documents in NestJS, ensuring smooth data management and efficient querying.

The Problem at Hand

Suppose you're tasked with creating a structure where a Diet contains an array of dietDays, and each dietDay includes:

A date field.

A meals object that references meal schemas for breakfast and lunch.

Understanding how to properly structure these references is crucial. Let's break down how to do just that.

A Simple Solution: Defining the Schemas

To get started, we first need to define a schema for the individual DayInDiet, where we'll outline the date and meals properties. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Create the DayInDiet Class

You can create a schema for each day in the diet as follows:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 2: Create the Meal Class

Next, let’s ensure you have a Meal schema that can be referenced:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 3: Update the Diet Schema

Finally, we need to update the main Diet schema to include references to DayInDiet:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Key Considerations

Reference Naming: Ensure that the names you use in your ref property match the names of the schemas you created. In our case, they are 'Meal' and 'DayInDiet'.

Structure: Remember that both breakfast and lunch should be valid MongoDB schemas; otherwise, consider using an array of options if they are not predefined schemas.

_id Property: It's a common misconception that you need to define the _id property in your schemas. MongoDB automatically provides an _id field for each document, so it's not necessary to include it.

Conclusion

Creating nested schemas in NestJS using Mongoose can initially seem daunting, but with the right structure and understanding of references, you can manage complicated data relationships with ease. By following the examples provided, you'll be well on your way to structuring your Diet, DayInDiet, and Meal documents effectively.

If you have any further questions or encounter any issues while implementing these schemas, feel free to reach out for guidance!

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